May 22, 2009

Coming In

The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency has announced that their lunar orbiter Kaguya will execute its final feat of exploration on June 10 at 18:30 GMT. That is the expected time for it to impact along the southeastern limb near the crater Gill. This time and location will be refined in the next 20 days. The Moon will be a few days past full, and the Gill area should be in shadow, increasing the chance of detecting any bright flash. It is ironic that Kaguya may end near Gill, for that was the area of the first LRO nominally a week after Kaguya's demise, and a much more liberal policy for image release, it may be that the Kaguya images will have lost their chance to be new.

Technical Details
No details were given for the image above, presumably it is from the Terrain Camera. UPDATE: The image on the right appears to be from Clementine - thanks to Phil Stooke for identifying it.